LOS ANGELES _ Mickey Mouse is still the big cheese.

The Walt Disney Company's globally recognized rodent and his friends were the top-earning fictional characters for 2003, according to a list by Forbes.

Mickey stacked that cheddar to the tune of $5.8 billion dollars, with fellow Disney pal Winnie the Pooh nipping his heels with $5.6 billion.

To qualify for the list, the character is required to have debuted in a narrative story on screen, in print or in a video game. Therefore, Sanrio's uber-cute Hello Kitty, who earned an estimated $4 billion last year, wasn't considered.

Rounding out the Top 10 list are: humble hobbit Frodo Baggins of "Lord of the Rings" fame ($2.9 billion), boy wizard Harry Potter ($2.8 billion), clownfish Nemo from Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo" ($2 billion), Yu-Gi-Oh! ($1.6 billion), the ever effervescent SpongeBob SquarePants ($1.5 billion), webslinger Spider-Man ($1.3 billion), "X-Men" mutant Wolverine, ($900 million) and the chirpy Pikachu from the Pokemon franchise ($825 million.)

Characters such as Sully from "Monsters Inc." or from the "Star Wars" films dropped off from the previous year's list, since neither released films in 2003 to help boost their earnings. Others that almost made this year's list include the feeble-brained Homer Simpson, the bilingual Dora the Explorer, Marvel's green-skinned monster "The Hulk," the Red Ranger leader from "Power Rangers" and spaceman Buzz Lightyear from the "Toy Story" films.

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